Personalization

Personalized communication – is it the new standard?

Around 84 percent of respondents to a Salesforce survey indicated that it was important to them that companies treat them like people, not like just another number, when communicating with them. The survey also showed that recipients are more likely to view advertising as important if it contains personalized content, which means that generic content is out. Companies can benefit from the personalization trend in diverse ways. Personalized content

• increases customer retention,
• grows long-tail sales,
• raises activity levels, and
• improves assertiveness over competitors.

How personalization works in online marketing

From Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign and Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” service to Amazon’s personalized product recommendations, personalization may come in many different forms but the goal is always the same: to establish a strong customer relationship that is built on trust. Coca-Cola does it with its Coke bottles emblazoned with “Better Half”, Spotify by offering individual playlists with new favorite songs to surprise its members, and Amazon by tailoring shopping advice to personal preferences.

If your company is looking to create a personalization strategy, email marketing also offers a variety of suitable opportunities – for example, as part of a reactivation campaign that can be used to enliven weary subscribers. Other potential approaches for personalization include modifying apps, communicating via social media channels, and using messenger marketing.

Personalization: What you need to be aware of

Collecting and evaluating data is key in creating successful personalized advertising. Brands can only develop a profound understanding of their customers and a promising personalization strategy if they understand their customers’ preferences, needs, and wishes, and if they can assess the user behavior of different types of customers. They should consider both these aspects in particular to avoid encountering any obstacles:

Technical requirements for personalization

State-of-the-art technologies such as machine learning and AI have hugely expanded the available options for predictive personalization and everything that comes with it. If brands want to exploit this potential, they may want to think about investing in expanding data technology, as it increases the opportunities to find out more about users each time they click on the brand’s own website. This allows companies to optimally position themselves to tailor algorithms that not only consider sociodemographic factors but also facilitate psychographic targeting.

Personalized marketing and privacy

Data security is one of the main issues that everyone is currently talking about, so it is even more important for brands to engage with it – particularly in relation to personalized advertising. After all, there is a very fine line between necessary analysis and breaching personal privacy. If users are suspicious of personalized content – for example, if it is not clear where the relevant personal data was collected – that may damage the customer relationship and, in the worst-case scenario, the brand image in the long term. Companies should prevent this kind of situation by being transparent and ensuring that its personalized advertising complies with the GDPR.

Marketing 2.0 – Let’s get personal

Personalization is the new recipe for success for effective advertising campaigns in e-commerce. Personalized content has the potential to optimize the quality of customer decisions, which in turn encourages activity and increases sales. But personalization is an art that all comes down to balance. If you can let your customers know that you understand their needs without coming across as pushy or violating the relevant regulations, then you have mastered this art So why not demonstrate that you are a master of personalization!